Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - VI
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in a quarter destitute of industrial pursuits as a
benefactor.
The one who in Dostoyevski’s work struggles with
this problem is Raskolnikof, a young Russian student,
unusually good-looking, with fine features, and
expressive black eyes, eminently gifted, but poor, as only a
Russian student is poor, plunged in the deepest poverty,
clad in rags, with a hat which cannot be seen without
awakening laughter. He has given up his studies on
account of his poverty, has tried in vain to support
himself, has let himself go to ruin. He is reserved, gruff,
suspicious, and hypochondriacal; he is proud, but also
high-minded and good; he very reluctantly betrays his
feelings. He is ambitious, with a tendency to boldness,
but often so despondent that he seems to be cold and
without sensibility to the degree of inhumanity. He is
melancholy by nature, sombre and passionate, arrogant
and magnanimous, sorrowful over the unhappy condition
of the human race, with a constantly burning desire
to be a benefactor on a grand scale. At bottom he is
without ability. According to the opinion of the
author, that is generally the case in Russia, where
all wish to become suddenly rich without toil or
trouble, and where every one is accustomed to have
that which is generally attained brought to him all
ready, accustomed to be led about in leading-strings,
accustomed to get all the intellectual nutriment after
it has been masticated by others. Capacity does not
fall down from heaven, and for almost two centuries
the people have been weaned from every public activity.
Even if Raskolnikof was melancholy from the first,
poverty creates new melancholy in him. His wretched
room is enough to cast an uninterrupted gloom over him.
The low, small room contracts his whole soul. He
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